The United States Mint issued the 2009 Louis Braille Silver Dollar to commemorate the 200th anniversary of his birth. Louis Braille is the inventor of the Braille system of reading and writing for the blind and visually impaired. The silver dollar contained the first readable Braille characters to appear on a legal tender United States coin.

The obverse of the coin features a portrait of Louis Braille designed by Joel Iskowitz and sculpted by Phebe Hemphill. The inscriptions read “Liberty”, “In God We Trust”, “Louis Braille”, and the bicentennial dates “1809” and “2009”.

The reverse features an image of a child reading a Braille book with a bookcase in the background bearing the word “Independence”. Inscriptions read “United States of America”, “E Pluribus Unum”, and “One Dollar”. The field above the image includes the word “Braille” (abbreviated “BRL”) in Braille characters. Although Braille characters have appeared on previous US coins, this is the first time the characters appear large enough to be readable by touch. The reverse was designed by Susan Gamble and sculpted by Joseph Menna.